Lemonade
by kismet-wayfinder
Summary: Oneshot. Gwen is really bugged that Ben likes to spend his time with Eunice when she's around, rather than with Julie. Kevin's pretty sure Gwen is really bugged about it for other reasons, however. Slight BxG.


**A/N: This fic will focus on the aspects and possibilities of Ben and the character of Eunice - though only slightly. If you haven't seen the two episodes she was focused on in, then I recommend watching them; she is an interesting character. This is still a BenxGwen themed fic though if you were wondering. Thanks for reading!  
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><p>Gwen had always known that her cousin wasn't fully right in the head, what with his dofus tendencies and all. That said, in Ben's defense, his lack of patient thought at times usually happened to somehow help most matters in the end somehow, and as such, Gwen felt that she could sometimes simply disregard his bullheadedness with a wave of her hand while saying, <em>'That's just my Ben'<em>. At other times, though, Gwen didn't feel quite as inclined to pass-off Ben's thoughtlessness as a kind of ill-formed, boyish charm.

As it so happened, this day happened to incur one of these other times. Sunblock on and sunglasses attired, Gwen Tennyson sat atop the hood of her cousin's car (though he'd specifically asked her not to do it fifty times already) and watched said car-owner have a rare off-moment, where he wasn't having to battle alien armies or save the world. No, he was just getting to hang out like a normal teenager with one of his partners-in-hero-time, though for once it wasn't only Kevin or Gwen that he was chilling with.

Standing several feet away and lingering closely by one another as they spoke to each other or else shared a laugh or two, the Ultimatrix-wearing Benjamin Tennyson was hanging around with the Unitrix in her humanoid form; so in other words, he was hanging out with Eunice.

Of course, this given day being a surprise Indian Summer sort of day, Gwen, Ben and Kevin had already donned their beach gear and piled into Ben's car (Kevin's was having a tune-up done at the auto body shop) and the trio had been headed on their way to a local water hole hangout when they'd come across Eunice, hitchhiking her way into town along the side of the road, for no apparent reason at all other than to see Ben and company.

Naturally they'd let her in the car with them and had taken her along; luckily for Eunice, Gwen had a spare swimsuit on her. And so the now group of _four_ drove the rest of the way to the water hole, which was called Drop-Off Point, due pretty much only to the fact that near the water hole hung an old tire swing, affixed with a big knot to its appropriate branch by a battered and weathered-looking rope, which was used by many to swing out from and be dropped into the water.

"And _there_ they _go_," Gwen now mused aloud, bringing a hand to run back through her hair as she watched Ben chase Eunice over to the aforementioned tire swing. They were both laughing again, even still as Ben gave the blond-haired, green-eyed girl a boost up so that she found her footing on the bottom of the tire swing. Her small hands then reached to hold tightly onto a knot in the rope it hung from.

"_Kevin_ . . . " Gwen said, glancing over to the nearer by tree, where a tall, broad-shouldered young man with dark hair and dark eyes stood, poking a large stick upward as he swung it at branches, trying to knock down the visibly ripe lemons that hung from them.

"Yeah, Gwen?" he replied, as he continued to swing at the many citrus fruits, seemingly in vain.

"Do you think that Ben ever even just stops to ponder the fact that he keeps screwing things up with Julie over, well, having feelings for a . . . _robot_?"

Sighing, Kevin lowered his stick and said, "That's kinda harsh, isn't it, Gwen? I mean, Eunice isn't a robot, technically speaking, unless she's in her compact, Unitrix form. Right now Eunice is just . . . Eunice."

Frowning slightly in a concerned way as she slid down from the hood of her cousin's car, Gwen folded her arms over her bosom and said, "You're right – I shouldn't have sounded so, like you said, harsh. I really like Eunice, Kevin."

"Even when she pops up out of nowhere and borrows your favorite two-piece swimsuit?" Kevin asked, giving a bit of a smirk.

"_Yes_, Kevin – even then," Gwen answered with a slight rolling of her eyes. "Honestly, I like Eunice a lot but I can't help but worry that Ben's _really_ screwing things over with Julie for good every time he gets closer and closer with Eunice."

"So what?" Kevin replied nonchalantly, resuming his swinging at the lemon-heavy branches. "I mean, just like _you_ like Eunice, I happen to like Julie. She's fun, she's sweet – she's all-in-all a good girlfriend, but . . ."

"_But_. . . ?" Gwen repeated back.

"_But_," Kevin continued on. "Maybe Julie should be a good girlfriend to someone else who, you know, actually wants her attention?"

Mulling this thought over for a moment, Gwen then said, "Yeah, I mean, as much as I don't want to really admit it, you're right about the fact that Julie is pretty much wasting her efforts on Ben - he's just not giving back as much as she's giving in. Instead, she _could_ have someone that would pay her better attention. She could – she _should -_ have someone who's always there for her, saving her, keeping her secure, loving her above next to no-one else; someone to always listen – even if it means they argue too, and even then, all the arguing in the world still wouldn't matter, because in the end, all the same –"

"He's still your Ben?" Kevin ventured to guess, and his slightly disgruntled facial expression only darkened further when he got his confirmation of an answer in the form of a blush across Gwen's face.

Raising his eyebrows, Kevin swung once more at the lemon tree before stepping out of the way as a small handful of fruit broke free at last, falling to the ground with hard, thud sounds as they went.

Sighing heavily, Gwen opened her mouth to speak; she felt compelled to explain her actions to her not-so-official boyfriend about her not-so-subtle slip up regarding Ben. However, before she could say a word, Kevin picked up a lemon from the ground, wiped it off on his shirt and tossed it over to her. Kevin then turned his head to look in the direction of the water hole, where Ben was now pulling both Eunice and the tire swing both backward, clearly preparing to release the sides of the tire so that the Unitrix-girl could experience the thrill of being flung forward into a spring of cold water.

Then looking back to Gwen as Ben let go of the tire at last, Kevin saw that the redhead was frowning slightly as she looked down at the lemon in her hand. "Gwen," he said to her. "If you really take the time to just think about it, I think you'll find all the answers to all the questions you haven't even asked yourself yet." Pausing for a moment, he then glanced back over toward the tire swing couple as Eunice hit the water with a splash and added, "I know I'm not a mastermind of emotional intellect or anything, but I'm not outright clueless, either. This whole Ben and Eunice thing – you were never really worried about Ben forgetting about Julie so much as you were worried about Ben spending more time with Eunice than he does with you."

"Kevin, I – _I . . ._"

"Gwen, no, it's okay – don't worry about it. Like really – I get it more than you think I get it. I care for you, and I know you feel the same, but still Gwen, I'm not exactly Ben, right?"

When a guilty-looking Gwen said nothing in return right away, Kevin added, "Anyway, getting back to the Ben and Eunice issue – or, the Ben and Julie issue – or, the Ben and _you_ issue –"

"Kevin, please, I feel bad and I'm already really sorry as it is, honest," Gwen said, biting down on her lip as she furrowed her brows and reached a hand forward, placing it against Kevin's forearm. "Just, whatever your point is, go ahead and say it. I deserve whatever it is you have to say to me."

Stepping away from Gwen and reaching down to pick up another lemon, Kevin said to her simply, "I'm not looking to make you feel bad, Gwen. Whatever the case may be regarding you and Ben and all that – the only advice I can give you is this: make lemonade."

"Lemonade," Gwen repeated back, now gazing over in the direction of the tire swing as Ben himself climbed up onto it. "Because when life gives you lemons . . .?"

"Yeah, something like that," Kevin said, tossing his own lemon into the air once and then catching it. "You can figure it out. Do whatever comes to mind – I'll just keep busy here, knocking down more lemons for you."

Smiling, Gwen quickly leant in and gave a brief sort of hug to Kevin, before saying, "Thank you, Kevin," and then turning and running off, toward the direction of the tire swing.

Growing more quiet with her footsteps as she snuck up more and more closely behind her cousin as he stood on the swing, Gwen began inwardly counting backward from ten. She could see that Eunice had spotted her from the water, but the blond girl simply raised a closed fist over her own mouth to stifle a laugh as she kept quiet and watched the prank proceed.

_Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . _

"_One_!" Gwen exclaimed, before rushing forward and giving an almighty shove to the tire swing, sending an unsuspecting Benjamin forward, tumbling over, face-forward into the water with a rather large splash.

Immediately paddling his way about and splashing to fix himself upright within the water at once, Ben shook his slightly shaggy hair about and wiped the water from his eyes before looking up at the bank, where a particularly tall-looking Gwen stood, a triumphant grin on her face so big that it seemed to reach her startling green eyes.

"Very nice – _ha, ha_ – looks like you got me, Gwen," Ben said to her, before sighing and stretching an arm outward, up from the water to her. "Now play nice and help me back out again, pretty-pretty-_please_?"

Obliging him, Gwen reached forward and took hold of Ben's hand. As she did, a strange surge of feeling rushed through her, startling her enough that she didn't have enough time to cotton-on to what, of course, Ben's little quick-revenge plot had been all along.

With a second, bigger splash, Gwen was pulled into the water along with Ben, whom she landed upon there in the fairly shallower part of the water. Gasping in surprise, Gwen lifted herself up slightly from Ben in the water to look down at him, before inexplicably cracking up, beginning to laugh.

"_Hey_, I got _you_ back!" Ben said to her, though he wasn't sincerely concerned or upset by her amusement with the situation. "I should be laughing – _me_!"

"So do it," Gwen replied, before slipping one of her hands beneath his armpit, beginning to tickling him there; it was his weak spot, and she'd known it practically her whole life.

Beginning to laugh against his own will, Ben soon managed to move both of his own hands to find Gwen's wrists, which he grabbed onto quite tightly. "Ha – now _I_ have _you_ – I'm not letting go."

"Not ever?" Gwen replied, a mock look of alarm on her face.

"Hmm, well _maybe _I'll let go – _if_ you know the magic word."

Grinning brightly, to the point where it crinkled her nose a bit, Gwen said, "Lemonade."

"Why lemonade?" Ben asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It's sour – it's sweet – it's the best of both worlds," Gwen answered simply, still smiling as Ben relinquished his hold on her wrists and let his own hands simply fall to his sides instead as the redhead moved to get up off him to stand up, reaching down to offer him a true hand up instead this time.

Accepting it, Ben got to his feet, before saying, "I like lemonade, you know."

Still smiling in her own simple, subtle way, Gwen kept hold of Ben's hand and answered, "Me, too."


End file.
